Trash Talk In Lents

A mysterious preservation group stirs up opposition to a recycling center in Southeast Portland.

In July, glossy
brochures showed up at homes in the Southeast Portland neighborhood
attacking plans to collect food waste at a local facility run by
Recology Inc.

The San
Francisco-based company collects yard debris from local haulers at a
recovery facility at Southeast 101st Avenue and Foster Road. Recology,
which boasts a long track record in Portland, also wants to collect food
there when Portland starts citywide food recycling this fall.

A few neighbors started grumbling about potential odors and noise—and then a mysterious opposition group popped up.

Called the
Springwater Trail Preservation Society, the group aims to thwart
Recology’s plans. “Increased truck traffic, noise, dust, pollution, and
disease-carrying vermin will take over the community,” says the group’s
slick website, thisdoesntsmellright.org. Then a high-priced lawyer
started showing up at neighborhood meetings to oppose Recology, and
well-connected lobbyists called in favors from local politicians.

No one will say who’s bankrolling all of it.

“This
is more money than any citizen group I’ve ever been involved in could
possibly come up with,” says John Notis of the Lents Urban Renewal
Advisory Committee. “It smelled like crap.”

There are millions of
dollars at stake over who controls Portlanders’ trash after they leave
it on the curb. Recology now hauls the yard debris it collects at 101st
and Foster to a North Plains site for composting. Gary Conkling, a
veteran PR consultant paid by Recology, says the food waste would stay
in Lents no more than a few hours, and occasionally overnight.

Recology needs the
city to change its conditional-use permit to allow it to accept food. A
few residents were alarmed by the prospect when they were first informed
in the spring. They say only nearby neighbors were notified.

“I wouldn’t want this
in any neighborhood in Portland,” says opponent Frank Fleck. “Recology
and the city tried to sneak this through in the dead of night.”

Fleck says he is the
Springwater Trail Preservation Society’s president. Ask him who’s paying
for the campaign and he ends the conversation. “I thought you were
going to help us out, but you’re not,” he says—and then hangs up.

Another member claims
he doesn’t know who is paying for the lawyers, lobbyists and pricey
mail campaign. “My guess is that it’s business rivals of Recology,” says
Gary Gossett, the group’s secretary.

The people who do know won’t come clean.

On April 27, hearings
officer Gregory Frank ruled that the alleged nuisances caused by
Recology’s plans wouldn’t pose a significant problem for neighbors and
recommended the city approve the company’s request.

On May 9, lawyer
Thomas Rask of Kell Alterman & Runstein registered the Springwater
Trail Preservation Society with the state’s Corporation Division. Three
days later, he appealed the hearings officer’s ruling. Neighbors at a
July 26 meeting in Lents repeatedly asked Rask who was paying him. He
refused to answer. Rask didn’t return WW’s phone calls.

Pac/West, a lobbying firm run by former state senator Paul Phillips, also went to work opposing Recology.

Sen. Rod Monroe (D-East Portland) wrote a letter to the City Council opposing Recology’s plan. Monroe told WW he did so at the request of Pac/West lobbyist Josh Balloch, who ran Monroe’s 2006 Senate campaign.

“So my tendency was to be helpful when they asked for this favor,” Monroe says.

Multnomah
County Commissioner Judy Shiprack, whose district includes Lents, also
wrote in opposition. Her husband, Bob Shiprack, a former labor leader
and lawmaker, works with Pac/West. Judy Shiprack wouldn’t reveal whom
she spoke with at Pac/West, except to say it wasn’t her husband. Bob
Shiprack confirms that.

“This is really not a
result of a big lobby effort,” Judy Shiprack says. “I’m involved
because I have constituents who are very concerned.”

Conkling, Recology’s
spokesman, suspects the hidden hand belongs to Allied Waste Transfer
Services of Oregon, a competitor that recently lost a Metro contract to
Recology. “The word in waste-management circles is that this is Allied
trying to take a shot at Recology,” Conkling says.